In recent years, the use of metal in the construction industry has been on the rise. It is not uncommon now to see steel or aluminum wall studs being used as opposed to wood. Also gaining in popularity are prefabricated metal door frames. Metal framing offers many advantages over wood: metal has more strength; metal is useful in applications where doors and walls are moved, e.g., office buildings; metal is less susceptible to expansion and contraction due to moisture; and metal can offer cost savings as it does not generally have the cost fluctuations of wood.
With the use of metal in construction comes problems and risks not seen in the use of wood. Chief among these problems and risks are alignment and injury. Alignment of metal framing is critical. Unlike wood to which a wall covering material, such as drywall, may be affixed at any location on the wood with either nails or screws, metal framing is impenetrable and, therefore, has slots through which screws must be threaded. Therefore, it is imperative that the metal framing be precisely positioned so that when the wall covering material is positioned, a screw may be threaded through the wall covering material and into a metal framing slot to securely fasten the wall framing material. Metal framing materials are much less forgiving than wood; manipulation of these materials can result in injury to the material user as a result of the sharp edges associated with metal framing materials.
Alignment devices are known in the industry. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,201,874 discloses and claims a self-positioning stud spacing guide. This device utilizes a pair of fixed jaws set at a predetermined distance from one another. Each jaw is then placed over a stud, and the predetermined distance then calibrates the distance between studs.
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,753,566, a doorjamb jig is disclosed and claimed. This device sets a door frame so that the door frame will be plumb in both the vertical and horizontal directions.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,989,336 discloses and claims a trim positioning device. This device is limited to positioning trim around a door and has no applicable use for positioning a stud between two frame members.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,997,172 discloses and claims a stud positioning tool for use in positioning a horizontal stud with respect to a perpendicular stud. This particular device cannot be used to position a stud with respect to a door frame.
Finally, U.S. Pat. No. 5,054,755 discloses and claims a stud hanger mounting tool. This device is used to position stud hangers on a header beam. It does not provide for spacing the stud hangers at a preset distance from one another nor does it function as a tool to set the spacing distance of a stud from sidewalls of a frame member to allow drywall to be placed between the stud and frame member.
As illustrated by the above prior art, to date no tool for positioning a metal wall stud within a door frame has been developed. Specifically, the prior art is devoid of an apparatus which permits precision alignment of a door frame creating the spacing needed for application of an exterior or interior wall mounting material. Additionally, the prior art is devoid of an apparatus which permits such alignment while, at the same time, reduces the risk of injury to a user.
There is need, therefore, for a simple, easy to use stud alignment tool which permits alignment of a metal wall stud within a door frame. There is need for such a device which aligns the metal wall stud within the door frame so that an outer wall surface covering material can be precisely applied. Further, such a device should reduce the risk of injury from attempting to align a steel door frame and metal wall stud.